1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital recording device and a recording method, and more particularly to a digital recording device converting recorded data at high definition to standard definition and a recording method therefor.
2. Description of the Background Art
A device of interest to the present invention that converts an encoding scheme of an image is disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-128170. This publication discloses a configuration for encoding an image with a converted resolution to output a bit stream.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-331613 discloses a configuration for converting a resolution of a high-definition image signal for output as a standard-definition image signal.
The conventional resolution-converting devices have been configured as described above. A high-definition image signal has been converted to a standard-definition image signal, and the image signal having a converted resolution has been encoded and stored or transmitted for display in the form of a bit stream.
In the convention resolution-conversion, however, no consideration is given to a resolution-conversion for that image data which has once been recorded. Therefore where image data recorded in a recording portion has a high definition, the data volume thereof is so large that a heavy load is imposed on the recording portion.